Do Mushroom Corals need Halides?

[funlad3]

I've finally decided that the majority of the corals I would put in my soon to be tank would be mushrooms or corals with similar lighting requirements. I know that halides are the best for growth, but I don't want the heat. Would these corals survive and look good under vho and pc lighting? I know they won't grow as fast, but I'd rather be vvveeerrrryyyy patient with coral growth than have to deal with excessive heating problems. Later on, will I need to upgrade to halides anyways? I know a lot of you all like T-5 lights (or something like that) so what are they and do they produce tons of heat like halides?

[petlovingfreak]

T-5 HO's are good, my wife has PC lights on her 120 and her mushrooms etc have been growing really good. I have T-5's on the 75 gal fuge on my 180 gallon tank, and the mushrooms grow good under them, the macro algae grows like crazy down there. We have too many tanks to run metal halides, we'd be living in a sauna.

[SilverThorn]

Power compacts are great for mushrooms. They don't have as high a lighting requirement as many other corals I had a 36g tall with just mushrooms pieced together from bits of other tanks.(frankentank lol) It had x2 standard florescent daylight bulbs & x1 blue florescent.The tank looked like something out of a bad sifi movie with all the lights perched on top of a makeshift glass top & all the mismatched bits. The mushrooms & purple coraline grew like crazy!

[funlad3]

So far, I am pleased with these results, but if anyone else (SW), has advice, please post.

Thanks!

[Osiris]

Your soft corals like mushrooms don't need halides, and will suffice just fine under PC's. If you do go with halide, I would go with a low wattage one. For best coloration, if you have PC's I'd use atnic's and white sepearte not the combo together like they sell.

[funlad3]

Cool. Whats the price range I should be looking for?

[Gregoryalln854]

I had 3 tanks with mushrooms, the tank that did best had low light and dirty water. Nothing but the basics, mushrooms seem to thrive in not so ideal conditions. The ones I had under my Halides still did ok, but the growth was slow.

[Ice]

Halides tend to run hotter and brighter. I say no on halides for mushrooms.

[Gregoryalln854]

double post